Claimed $67,000 in winnings before he was caught
BALTIMORE, Md. — A former Maryland Lottery official has been indicted for stealing tickets and collecting tens of thousands of dollars from the winnings, officials said on Thursday.
Mark Barron Hantski, 59, of Lothian, a former Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency employee, collected $67,000 in winnings after stealing tickets from the Maryland Lottery, officials said in a news release.
Officials say that the Grand Jury for Anne Arundel County formally charged on April 18th.
Hantski stole $99,600 worth of lottery tickets from nine different retailers, officials said.
Felony theft scheme over $10,000 but under $100,000 is punishable by a maximum sentence of 15 years incarceration and $15,000 fine. Hantski's arraignment date has been set for May 6, according to the news release.
Thanks to Original Bey for the tip.
I wonder if Mr. Hantski and Ms. Rameriaz ( from Iowa ) had coffee together before they became so ingenious...
I agree, MADDOG10, or even tea!
$67,000 in winnings from only $99,600 worth of tickets? Is there a chance that Maryland has a payout ratio that good, or is there a bit more to this story?
I thought tickets can only be claimed after they are activated by the retailers. So, did he stole the tickets after they were activated in the stores? How did he do that? Even for a lottery employee, it would be pretty difficult to steal the tickets once they arrived at the stores and activated.
70% total payback on Scratch games is common in most states, even without hitting the top prize. Don't know about MD, they don't seem to publish complete info on their games.
Maybe they were games that were pulled due to end of sale date. If he was working on the inside, he may have been able to alter (or fail to update) the pack status. You'd have to think it would catch up to him some way later on, so still pretty stupid.
Mr. Hantski is so clever. It's just so sad he didn't use his brain in good things. I hope he get capital punishment so people will not do the same.
lol, Legends in their own mind.
So he stole tickets that came into the lottery office for approval or something before they were sent to retailers? I am not getting this either.
Read the actual news release. It says he pulled it off while a lottery employee.
http://www.oag.state.md.us/Press/2013/041813.html
This is why I don't like "distributors" who handle the tickets between printing and the retailer.
Thanks! Interesting story. I am still not sure how he did this....he visited stores in his capacity as a lottery rep. and stole tickets there or he stole them before they even got to the store?
It seems maybe they want to keep the "how to" a secret. lol. lol. But considering that the tickets must be scanned in at the store to be valid he must have had access to the vending machines or the display counters to take tickets. I'm sure the trick was knowing which ones to take.
He sounds like a DSR, a District Sales Rep. They manage their accounts/stores in their area, monitoring sales and handling ticket inventory.
It is probably not direct theft on ticket orders, the store would notice that upon receipt. But I could see an opportunity for fraud when stores return tickets to the DSR. Typically this is done when a game is at end of sales date, or they otherwise have excess that they need to return. In those cases, packs of tickets returned to DSR should be credited back to the store.
So if he was taking those returned packs of tickets for himself, eventually this would catch up to him with a bunch of stores complaining, "hey, where is my credit?"
Ticket packs can be up to $600-$1000 each, so for around $100,000 in tickets, spread across 9 stores, that could only be 10-12 packs of tickets *stolen* from each store over a few years. Sound like he thought he could slip it through the cracks, or maybe catching stores when they are closing their lottery accounts or closing down completely.
I order to get away with it for over 3 1/2 years I would think he was only taking a few tickets at a time. Which leads me to believe he understood how the printer spaces winners in the run.
He only got $67,000 back from $99,600 in tickets. That's pretty much right in line with the statistical average for most scratch games. Heck, I got better than 67% return from all my scratch games play, and I ain't a cheatin DSR! From the numbers, he probably never hit any large top prize, just regular winners that normal folks get.
Ok, thanks. Now I understand the story better. lol. His only advantage was that he didnt PAY for the tickets.
What a schmuck.
Surprised this happen in Md i could see it in Wisconsin
i know every ticket has to be tracked. in my local they misplaced a roll, and the lottery guys where out and investigating. now who actually " logs those tickets into the store. " and on the log as being placed from storage to for sale in the store? If he was involved in that , and he did it unattended. it could give him room to knock a roll off as sold.
still the agent should balance their till every night and see any difference between cash balance and the register balance. maybe there are some slack retailers that run unbalanced books out there.
Perhaps some of our beloved members who are themselves cashiers can help answer these questions?
watch out for boobie traps
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Good choice. LP is a place for winners. You are a winner.